It appears that the Education Department in NSW maybe going to allow school students to access social media sites like Facebook etc. I wonder if that will also apply to TAFE students who are generally over 18 but are also screened out of basically any social site except for Linkedin and YouTube. This is very encouraging news. Yes, these sites have potential dangers but kids and adults are using them anyway and if they can be provided with helpful training in the dangers then that is the sort of service that TAFE and schools should be providing.
As a state and as a country we need to move on in the area of elearning, social media and the effective use of the internet as we are falling behind. I know that there are many that don’t think that is correct and many who believe the internet is evil and a waste of time but the times are a changing (actually they have already changed, some people just don’t know it yet). When I was in school calculators were considered to be a detriment to learning, now they are part of life. Television and the phone were luxuries and used sparingly and definitely not for educational purposes. Times change.
What do you think? Do you let your children use Facebook? Do you let them play online games? Why? Why not?
Just by coincidence I was listening to a podcast in the car this morning from the Edtech crew. They are mainly about school based elearning but they often have some very interesting interviews and web links. The podcast I was listening to was with Kevin Honeycutt who is a USA based elearning expert and he really had some very interesting and different views on elearning that were refreshing to hear. Please have a listen and let me know what you think. It’s great to see that there are pioneers out there who keep pushing the boundaries so that all of us can follow behind, learning from their experiences.
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